Episode 37: Hunt for the Black Box

 

The Team hunts The Guardian of one of Gregory Michaels’ ‘Black Boxes’ and discovers that others are hunting him too. The Guardian is found dead but a clue written in blood and items found at the scene lead the group to a ruined monastery and their prey.

Background

Gregory Michaels is the leader of a secret freelance spy agency called Section and the man who arranged for Kyle Vaduva to be burned at the C.I.A. Michaels keeps his information on those he is blackmailing into working for/with him on four portable hard drives hidden around the world. The Team, with the help of the Collective and Tiffany, a traitor in his organization, has learned the general location of each. Four simultaneous operations around the world will seize these items before they strike at Section’s headquarters and take down Michaels. The Team will conduct one of these raids in Asuncion, Paraguay. This is where Kyle saw Smoke at a bank back in 2040 during a C.I.A. operation. (See C.I.A. Blues Campaign earlier in this forum.) This was the incident that led Michaels to have Kyle burned.

Dramatis Personae

The Team

Allison Cole: 16 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Fisher’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. She just graduated from that school and—when she became a suspect in a recent heist in Atlantic City—followed her friend to Jamaica. Perhaps not yet “world class”, her skills as a Prowler are formidable.

Cat Fisher: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.

Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are now looking into ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements with the man and he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams. The Team bases out of his Morgan’s Harbor Hotel which he operates in cooperation with the Disney Corporation’s Port Royal Historical Theme Park and Museum.

Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent now burned by the agency over incidents that he did not commit. He is now reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, whom he recently learned is the full memory clone of the late infamous bio-genetic assassin, Caitlin Jones.

Nip Lacey: 15 yo girl with neon green hair, has amnesia. She is a NET savant, classmate of Allison Cole’s, and the other of Cat Fisher’s best friends from high school.

Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip’s.

Randy Shugart III: He is the 28 yo grandson of CMH winner, Randall Shugart of Blackhawk Down fame. He is himself an eight year veteran of Delta Force and has recently been maneuvered out of the military.

William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.

Zahra Baudin: She is a 29 yo veteran of the JDF (Jamaican Defense Forces). Born of a Jamaican mother and a Haitian father, she is a trained “intrusion” expert.

The NPCs

Gregory Michaels: Leader and founder of “Section”, the clandestine private Black Ops organization that ‘burned’ Kyle Vaduva.

Smoke: A former C.I.A. operative who also trained Kyle Vaduva during his early days at the Agency’s ‘Farm’. Kyle saw Smoke at a bank in Asuncion, Paraguay back in 2040 (during C.I.A. Blues Campaign). This sighting was the initial reason for Gregory Michaels having Kyle burned.

The Guardian (Carlos Gomez): A top flight solo, who protects the ‘Black Box’.

The Cleaner: A world class assassin also sent to protect the ‘Black Box’.

Assorted thugs

The Action

Thursday, June 8, 2045:

The Team lifts off from Jamaica just before dawn aboard their C-23 Sherpa for Paraguay except for William, who was helping coordinate the actions of this group, the Collective and the Consortium. They have no idea where the Guardian is, only a name, Carlos Gomez, the fact that he lives in the capital of Asuncion and the ‘Black Box’ is in a safe deposit box at the Banco Central del Paraguay. On the fourteen hour flight they go over many plans on how to get at the box. A NET search turns up 254 people named Carlos Gomez. They don’t have time to check them all. A number of plans including the extortion of the bank manager and several robbery options are discussed, but all have a similar problem. The planning and execution of an operation on that scale is outside their time frame.

The group tries another approach. From Tiffany, they learned that the current Guardian took up his duties just after Smoke saw Kyle in Asuncion in 2040. Nip, Cat and Kyle start researching all the people named Carlos Gomez. A Guardian is always a top flight solo with a lot of experience. That limits his age to between 20 and 45 years of age. That brought the number down to 94 people. He has to be in top shape and not have a too high profile job or one that takes him out of the city a lot. The number was then reduced to 47. Most importantly, the Carlos Gomez they were looking for moved to Asuncion around 2040. That reduced the pool to just 1.

They got his address, which was a second floor apartment of a large multi-building complex in a moderate residential district. The complex had a NET site with layouts of the apartments available. Through this Nip got the general floor plan of the target’s residence.

That evening the Team landed in Paraguay. Kyle, Cat and Randy took a car to the apartment complex. Randy drove and dropped off the other two in stealth gear to do a ‘sneak and peek’. Nip flew a remote above the area and put it in hover mode while she ran NET support.

Carlos Gomez’s apartment was dark and quiet. After sunset Kyle and Cat made their way to a back window and climbed up to the second floor. Kyle disabled a simple alarm on the window and opened it. Then he checked the room and noticed a carefully hidden tripwire set to snag an unwary soul if they stepped through that window. He disabled that too and the pair made their way through the apartment.

In the bedroom they found Carlos Gomez. He had been shot dead. A floorboard had been pulled up in that bedroom’s closet and the compartment below was empty. Before he died Carlos had written the words: “San Migu” in his own blood. A search of the room produced no other information.

Nip immediately went into the apartment complex’s security system. In the memory she found a record of three men entering that building this morning and leaving thirty minutes later. They wore hats and deliberately didn’t look at the cameras. Nip did get a shot of their vehicle. A four wheel drive British Land Rover and its plates.

Kyle and Cat searched the rest of the apartment, but found nothing. Doc Freeman was monitoring the operation with the rest of the Team at their plane when something on the apartment layout caught his eye. There was a small but significant space behind one of the walls in the apartment’s bathroom. The Doc directed Kyle to the spot and the ex-C.I.A. agent punched through the wall there. In the space was a ‘run bag’. It contained a couple of passports, some cash, a handgun and a map of Alto Paraguay, the northernmost district in the country.

The Team withdrew from the apartment. Cat contacted the Collective which has strong connections with the government of Paraguay and gave them the license number of the vehicle that was seen outside the late Guardian’s apartment this morning. Kyle then had Nip run a search of the words “San Migu” against anything in Alto Paraguay. A ruined monastery in the hills east of the town/cattle station of Lagerenza called San Miguel de La Rosa popped up.

By now a report on the British Land Rover came back. It was a rental car that had not been returned yet. The Collective’s operatives were watching all the airports and border crossings and were fairly sure that this vehicle had not crossed the border. The Team had no other leads so they fired up their C-23 and flew north to Lagerenza. The Collective tasked one of their orbiting satellites to scan the old monastery and found a British Land Rover parked outside the ruined structure. The Team prepared to assault the place on arrival.

***

Friday, June 9, 2045:

About an hour after midnight the Team made a HALO jump two miles south of the monastery. Within the hour they were at the ruined structure. It was a rectangular building about eighty meters east to west by thirty-five meters north to south. The roof over the center of the building had long ago collapsed, but was intact at the edges and at the east and west ends. There were only two entrances inside. Both were at the western end. A large opening was in the southern part of that wall and a smaller doorway was at the northern end.

Nip hid about a mile away with Allison guarding her as the netrunner flew an SMG armed remote to scout the way ahead. The Land Rover was gone, but an osprey was sitting inside what had been the main chapel in the center. A guard was posted on the roof at each of the four corners.

Doc Freeman positioned himself 450 meters from the building to the southwest. Kyle, Cat, Randy and Zahra made a stealthy approach to the small door at the north end of the western wall. They made their approach unseen. Randy put a silenced shot into the guard just inside the door. Ahead a covered corridor ran the whole length of the building with open doorways to the left just five meters and about sixty meters ahead. A corridor split off to the right about ten meters from the door. Randy told Zahra to cover the corridor straight ahead. Cat remained outside to watch their rear while Randy and Kyle went into the room just to the left.

Randy and Kyle silenced the guard in that room where a ladder went up through a hole in the ceiling. Randy went up the ladder, but couldn’t see the corner roof guard from that spot. Meanwhile, Zahra shifted her position to cover both the corridor ahead and the corridor to the right. Good thing, since a guard came around the corner there. The Jamaican solo was able to make a silent kill before the alarm went off.

Cat watched the entrance they had just entered as the other three swept the northern east-west corridor. They heard multiple voices coming from the rooms at the western end of the building so they decided to fall back and sweep the southern east-west corridor before cleaning out the western end of the building.

The Team swept the eastern north-south corridor disposing of two guards and secured the main door there. As they prepared to move again, the osprey’s engines began to wind up. It and the ‘Black Box’ were getting ready to leave.

Stealth be damned! Kyle bolted east down the southern main corridor. Randy and Zahra followed. Cat remained behind to watch their rear. Well, there was a guard in one of the rooms off that southern corridor. He was surprised as Kyle ran by, but shot and wounded Randy as he passed. Zahra stopped and killed the guard before proceeding.

Outside, Doc Freeman could see three of the four roof corner guards. Their positions were shielded from the air so Nip couldn’t get a bead on them without exposing the remote to immediate counter fire. When the shooting started, Doc fired his 30mm Essence and blew the northwest corner guard right in half. The men on the roof’s southern side opened up on full auto with assault rifles, but could not hit the Doc. The 30mm roared again and the man on the southwest corner had his arm, shoulder and life blown away. The southeast corner guard put one round into the Doc, but the damage was turned by heavy armor.

Inside, Kyle almost reached the room at the end of the corridor. He threw a flash bang grenade ahead of him and into there. This blinded and stunned the two waiting in ambush. Outside the sentry on the southeast corner dropped behind the wall. The flash-bang kept him from dropping down into the first floor. Doc Freeman watched where the man hid and fired right through the wall and killed him anyway. The sentry on the northeast corner did jump down to the first floor and head towards the osprey.

By now, Nip swooped in with her remote and cut down two more guards in the open courtyard before someone (The Cleaner) shot her remote down. Kyle kept running and turned north at the corner room. As he ran through the next room another guard fired at him, but missed. The ex-C.I.A. agent ignored this assailant and continued to the courtyard. Zahra and Randy continued to follow dispatching those blinded and/or left behind in Kyle’s advance.

As Kyle entered the courtyard, he saw two men walking up the ramp of the osprey. He drilled them both with his assault rifle before they could fire, and dropped both men. The ex-agent charged into the flying craft where the pilot and co-pilot surrendered. Zahra and Randy came up quickly. One of the dead men on the ramp was The Cleaner and had the ‘Black Box’. The surviving guards were mercenaries who surrendered on the death of their employer. The pilot and co-pilot were just hirelings of the company that this osprey was rented from. The two were contracted to fly some people out of here and weren’t particular who that was or where they were going.

Doc Freeman patched up Randy and the wounded mercenaries. The mercs were left with their money (and the cash of their dead comrades). The osprey flew the Team to a meet with operatives of the Collective and then those two and their craft were set free. The other three operations also met with success and the Team then headed to Nevada to join in on the final assault on Gregory Michaels and the headquarters of Section.

 

 

 

Episode 38: Just and Not-So-Just Desserts

 

The Team has learned the location of Gregory Michaels—Section’s HQ is in the desert about 180 miles east of Reno as the crow flies. Together with the Nietzscheans, the Team forms a plan to raid Section and take out Gregory Michaels. Tiffany has supplied the Team with a map of the ranch at the surface, as well as the five-story underground HQ. The Nietzscheans will deal with the surface ranch and the first two floors of the underground complex where they can expect to encounter many of Section’s regular solos. The Team will sneak into the air ducts and attack from below.

Dramatis Personae

The NPCs:

Collective: The Collective is a loose association of biogens, begun by the Nietzscheans. Any group of biogens can be represented on the Collective’s High Council, but in practice, the Council is 98% Nietzschean. Cat sits on this Council, representing herself and her sisters.

Gregory Michaels: Founder and head of ‘Section’—a shadowy black ops group that contracts with various governments around the world. Michaels began as a CIA operative, then went ‘private’ when he founded Section. Michaels has had blackmail material on a slew of politicians, including the operations he himself implemented. In the last episode, the Team captured one of his four ‘black boxes’ containing this blackmail material. In simultaneous operations, the Nietzscheans acquired the other three.

Markov: A top-notch NETRunner whom Michaels employs. This guy spends every waking moment either IN the Net or NEAR the Net.

Nietzscheans: Also known as ‘Super-Solos’, these humanoids were created as genetically modified and enhanced super soldiers. They rebelled from their creators (Arasaka and Biotechnica) and now live in New Zealand and the Martian Republic.

Smoke: A former CIA operative who trained Kyle Vaduva in stealth tactics during his early days at the Agency’s “Farm”. Kyle saw Smoke at a bank in Asuncion, Paraguay back in 2040 (during our CIA Blues Campaign). Gregory Michaels took note of the fact that Smoke thought Kyle recognized him as well. Gregory Michaels took the precaution of moving his Asuncion black box, and began to watch Kyle with an eye to (1) protect his black boxes and (2) possibly recruit the spy for Section.

The Crackler: Another former CIA operative who trained Kyle Vaduva in lethal hand-to-hand combat skills at the Agency Farm’. He got the nickname from the way he ‘cracks’ spines. At the start of this campaign (see Episode 1), Kyle encountered the Crackler at the hotel where he stayed in Caracas, Venezuela. The Crackler had been sent there to assassinate someone, and Kyle saw him as he was leaving the elevator. Again, the Crackler was sure Kyle recognized him too, and that was the last straw for a rather paranoid Gregory Michaels. Michaels set wheels in motion, and at a meeting with an art dealer the next morning, Kyle discovered he’d been burned.

Tiffany Wilson: Young ‘naked chick’ honeypot lure back in Atlantic City next door to Sam’s house. She claims to be a mole/traitor inside Section, working to take Michaels down.

The Action

Earlier in the week, Tiffany told the Team that Michaels is on edge. He and the entire Section complex are on high alert. Then she disappears.  Questions arise whether she has run, been taken by Section or has been a Section mole all the while. Either way, it is too late to call off the assault.

Friday, 7 July 2045:

Night:

The Team flies to within 5 miles of Section’s HQ, staying low to avoid radar detection and landing in the valley to the west of the complex. (HQ is the red star on the top map below.)

Everyone dons Stealth suits and sneaks over the mountains to where they can see the ranch about 1 mile (1.6 km) away. (See bottom part of map above.) They approach from the north, using the finger-shaped mountain ridge and three silos (three E-W dots above the largest building) as cover.

While the Nietzscheans prepare a frontal assault on the surface ranch, Cat and Nip launch Grid Bug remotes into the vertical air intake vent. This shaft is roughly six feet in diameter (not quite 2 meters), easily able to accommodate two or three bodies going down at a time. While the opening is camouflaged and covered, finding it was a piece of cake for the Nietzscheans.

[GM note: This intake vent is halfway between the ranch (black dots on map above) and the ridge of mountain about one-quarter mile (0.4 km) north of it.]

The remotes find tubes branching off at each underground level—with one camera at each level. Cat and Nip use the induction legs to hack into the cameras and program them to display an empty ventilation shaft. Once this is done, they signal to the aboveground Team to come on down.

They do. Kyle, Doc, Allison, Randy, William and Zahra make their Stealthy descent, all the way to the bottom-most level of the HQ complex.

Cat and Nip then prepare their decks, drop into the NET and become Invisible. It’s easy to find Section’s DataFortress, which is the only thing in the NET neighborhood. They breech the Code Gate (using Nip’s Wizard’s Book program). Staying Invisible, stepping inside and looking around, they discover a LOT of nasty ice: 3 Watchdogs, 2 Pitbulls, 2 Bloodhounds, 3 SeeYas, 2 Aardvarks, Clairvoyance, Glue, Stun, Knockout, King Trail, a Prison, Dragon, and a couple of Killers.

[GM Note: Hey, Michaels and his NETrunner, Markov, are not fooling around!]

The duo is detected—and alarms sound!  Nip and Cat beat an immediate retreat. The jig is up, and everyone attacks: Nietzscheans from above and the Team from below.

The Team drops into the bottom-most corridor—with Kyle in the lead. His sudden appearance through the ventilation grill in the ceiling takes the two guards by surprise. (G1 and G2.) They are dead as he hits the ground.  The Team shoots out the cameras, then sweeps southward and into the cells, where they find Tiffany, who joins the party.

[GM Note: In this and the following floorplans, each square is 1 meter. The yellow stars are cameras in the ceiling hooked into the internal computer system.]

Continuing through the south corridor, the Team goes through the double set of doors into the Infirmary section (on right). They again shoot out the cameras and investigate the rooms, encountering no resistance. They return to the guardpost side (on left) and take the stairs up one level.

Again, the Team sweeps through the floor (left side), shooting the cameras and investigating the two Suites and the six Guest rooms—all of which are empty. They also search the Office and Conference room, finding no people and nothing of particular interest in the computers.

Coming back into the corridor, Randy notices these are shorter than the lower level. What might be on the “other side” of that concrete wall?  The Team goes back downstairs and over to the other set of stairs (on right), and up one flight. Here, they find Gregory Michaels’ lair—his private bedroom and sitting area. But again, his quarters are empty, and there are no computers here. As before, they shoot the cameras.

The Team goes back downstairs, returns to the guardpost area (on the left), and goes up two flights to the next level (see map below).

Here, a dozen of Section’s Solo agents are waiting for them, and have had plenty of time to prepare. These people are scattered across the sparring area, ready for an invasion from the left or the right.

However, Kyle and Cat have formidable Initiative rolls—and nobody is surprised. Kyle goes first, dashing across the room to the position shown as Kyle1. Along the way, he disposes of #7 and #10 with headshots and wounds #2 but doesn’t kill him.  Kyle then bounds up the stairs to the spot shown as Kyle2, next to #1. Cat emerges right behind her lover, taking out #12, #2, #4, #6, and #11 with headshots, winding up at Cat2. Randy also comes out of the stairwell and executes #8 and #3 with headshots. Doc comes to the head of the stairs and levels his Essence. Zahra, William and Tiffany remain behind Doc in the stairwell, ready to spring out the next round, while Allison guards the rear.

The only targets still standing are #1, #2, #5 and #9. It’s now their turn in the initiative order! #1 knocks the pistol from Kyle’s hand. #2 shoots at Cat, but misses—by only one point! #5 and #9 both fire at Cat, considering her the most dangerous target—seeing how many of their comrades she has already taken out! Both are wielding Militech M31 (@ 4d6), and wounded Cat fairly seriously.

Doc now lets loose with his Essence—but botches his aim! Apparently intending to blow #5 and #9 into red mist, he hits Randy instead! The solo is shot in the head, and dies instantly.

[GM note: Doc rolled a botch, which turned into hits Team member, and impact location rolls included a 1=head. In our campaigns, we normally allow a player to use his Luck to lower the botch effect roll, but Doc Freeman just kept tossing dice without declaring he was using his Luck.  Of course he felt horrible about this ‘brain fart’, but what was done was done. Randy, a party member, is now dead.]

Kyle draws his katana, while #1 tries to sweep him with Capoeira—and fails. Kyle proceeds to slice #1 into mincemeat. Cat sets her sights on #2, #5 and #9—and turns them into head-shot salad.

Smoke and the Crackler emerge from the Control Room, where they have been guarding Gregory Michaels (GM on the map), and where the Geeks are cowering behind their desks.  Smoke targets Doc with his Sternmeyer M95. Freeman’s armor turns most of the damage but a little gets through.

The Crackler takes aim at Cat.  Before he can pull the trigger, Cat lets loose with a barrage from her 14mm Big Governments. She explodes the Crackler’s head with 90 points of damage. Doc Freeman returns fire at Smoke and blows a huge hole in his torso. Both go down.

Now, nothing stands between Kyle and his nemesis, Gregory Michaels, the man who got him burned. The former CIA agent stalks down the corridor and into the Control Room. First, he slices off his foe’s left arm, and then his right arm.

“Just a flesh wound,” Michaels quipps.  Having followed Kyle into the Control Room, Doc observes, “Wow, you’re really pissed at this target.”

Feeling alarmed and aghast at his bloodthirsty impulses, Kyle reconsiders the slow death he is dealing to this adversary. (After all, Kyle does have an Empathy of 8!) He swings his katana at Michaels’ neck—and decapitates him.

The Team enters the control room, where Markov immediately surrenders and cooperates. He broadcasts a surrender order to any agents who might still be resisting the Nietzscheans on levels one and two. Markov also turns off the HQ defenses. The Team finds 70,000 Euros of loose cash, and pockets it.

Kyle’s ordeal at the hands of Gregory Michaels is now over.  With the loss of Teammate Randy, however, the victory is bittersweet.

***

Aftermath

The CIA is red faced with embarrassment over the penetration of their organization. Having this go public would be a disaster. Both the Collective and the Consortium step in and deals are made. The CIA announces that Kyle Vaduva’s burn notice was part of a long term agency operation whose details must remain secret for national security reasons. He is given a medal and retires. The man does have twenty years in service. The accounts the agency froze and all of his back pay are returned to him with interest.

The Team agrees to this. Well, they don’t really have another option that doesn’t end up as them either dead or running for their lives.

 

 

Episode 39: Mission to Honduras

 

The Team goes into the eastern mountains of Honduras to extract a C.I.A. agent kidnapped by an old South Am drug lord who still nurses a great hatred towards the United States. On the way, they pick up a new team mate, go undercover as a group of Christian missionaries and bring medical aid to the locals. Their escape is a bit messy, but successful.

This is not the end of their troubles. A stop in the Cayman Islands almost turns to disaster as their past comes back to haunt the group. Relatives of the Baker’s Dozen, an Edgerunner team that they eliminated back in Episode 28, have banded together to avenge those they hold responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.

Background

Gregory Michaels is dead and his organization, the Section, has been eliminated. The C.I.A. is embarrassed by these revelations, but the Team keeps the Agency’s dirty little secrets in exchange for the complete rehabilitation of Kyle Vaduva’s name and reputation. The agency announces (quietly) that Kyle wasn’t actually burned, but on a highly secret undercover operation whose details must remain classified. His bank accounts that were seized are returned with interest. With twenty years of service he retires honorably with his pension.

Yeah, right, no one really ever retires from the C.I.A. You just become a deniable asset. Doc Freeman has a long history with the agency and Deputy Director Nathan Forrest already considers Cat Fisher one of his assets. So the Team like it or not, remains on call. Well, the C.I.A. has to pay them, but the agency does get preferential rates.

Dramatis Personae

The client du jour:

The Central Intelligence Agency (’nuff said, maybe too much)

The Team

Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Fisher’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. She just graduated from that school and—when she became a suspect in a recent heist in Atlantic City—followed her friend to Jamaica. Perhaps not yet “world class”, her skills as a Prowler are formidable.

Cat Fisher: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.

Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are now looking into ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements with the man and he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams. The Team bases out of his Morgan’s Harbor Hotel which he operates in cooperation with the Disney Corporation’s Port Royal Historical Theme Park and Museum.

Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent who was burned by the agency over incidents that he did not commit. His exposure of a secret organization, the Section, that had infiltrated the C.I.A. led to his rehabilitation and retirement. He has been reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, now known as Catherine “Cat” (Fisher) Ortiz, who is the full memory clone of the late infamous bio-genetic assassin, Caitlin Jones.

Nip Lacey: 16 yo girl with neon green hair, has amnesia. She is a NET savant, classmate of Allison Cole’s, and the other of Cat Fisher’s best friends from high school.

Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip’s.

William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.

Zahra Baudin: She is a 29 yo veteran of the JDF (Jamaican Defense Forces). Born of a Jamaican mother and a Haitian father, she is a trained “intrusion” expert.

And Introducing –
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner) who until recently made extra money by doing a bit of smuggling on the side. Before that he served as a security soldier with Petrochem but was ‘let go’.

The NPCs

Carlo de la Estaban: He is the oldest son of Ramon de la Estaban and his heir apparent. Unlike his father he is well educated and runs most of the cartel’s financial operations. The man is ruthless, but has a soft spot for his wife Maria and his three children Jose 11, Carlotta 9 and Manuel 6. His family lives in the capital in a heavily guarded compound. It is rumored that his father does not like his daughter in law, and Carlo also worries about his younger brother, Sergio’s appetites.

Commandante Julian Burgos: This man is the commander of the local police. They are actually a military force which works closely with Ramon de la Estaban’s private paramilitary group. He is a childhood friend of Ramon’s and they served together in the South Am Wars. This man is personally responsible for the deaths of a couple of thousand Americans during the Long Walk. He prefers to inflict slow and lingering deaths on his prisoners.

Ramon de la Estaban: Leader of the Olancho Cartel is the scion of the old family that has ruled their valley since the sixteenth century. He is a true conquistador and controls everything with an iron fist. During the South Am Wars he commanded a personal army that committed many atrocities not only against American troops, but any locals that assisted them. He is a student of Joseph Stalin and uses terror for terror sake to keep his people in line.

Robert Horner: A C.I.A. agent stationed in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. He was kidnapped on his way home from church on Sunday, July 9, 2045 by the Olancho Cartel. His cover was as an agricultural attaché but was studying drug production in the eastern mountains of the country. Horner has the names of all the C.I.A.’s assets in the area and is a priority rescue.
Sergio de la Estaban: He is the youngest son of Ramon and the chief enforcer of the cartel. He is a complete sociopath and sadist. Only fear of his father and Commandante Julian Burgos keeps him in line. His father unleashes the young man on his enemies when he needs the terror to be frightening. Sergio is an accomplished shot and has served in the Honduran Army. He is well trained, but could not endure the discipline. This young man has a taste for beautiful women and does not take no for an answer.

Antun Zrinski: The brother of Luca and Lea. He is a terrorist and hand to hand expert. He is usually political and not freelance.

Nicola Cesic: Brother of the late Dragoslav Cesic, the leader of the Serbia Hit Team, the ‘Baker’s Dozen’. Captain in Serbian Special Forces, heavily decorated and on extended leave.

Javor Grol: The brother of the late Petar Grol, a member of the ‘Baker’s Dozen’. He is wanted by Interpol for several terrorist bombings & murder. He is usually political (left wing) and not freelance.

Lea (Zrinski) Grol: The sister of Luca Subic Zrinski and wife of Javor Grol. She is wanted for computer crimes in the EU and is also political.

Malcolm Wright: He is the brother of Gregory Wright. Gregory was killed on an island in the Orinoco Delta. He was suspected of joining the Baker’s Dozen just before his death. Malcolm is a former officer of the Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard. Makes his living as a professional sailing captain and is winner of many sail races. He has no criminal record.

The Action

Monday, July 10, 2045:

Victor Kane, an American down and out in Honduras, has a problem. He has ‘lost’ his passport, is almost out of money and is stymied in his efforts to get out of the country. He is approached by US Embassy official with a deal. All he has to do is drive a group of ‘missionaries’ into the eastern mountains of Honduras, wait for a few days, then drive them out. If he does, he will get a passport quickly along with 10,000 euro or whatever currency he would like and transportation out of the country. Of course, he realizes there is more to this job than meets the eye, but he is desperate! The embassy official brings him to a garage to start to work on installing robotic remote controls with smart linkage on an Armadillo-like van.

Kyle, Allison, William and Zahra leave Port Royal Jamaica by air for the United States to take on the appearance and identities of a group of Protestant missionaries going to staff a mission in the eastern mountains of Honduras in the town of San Estaban.

Aboard their yacht, the Windfall, Nip and Cat set sail for the coast of Honduras.

***

Tuesday, July 11, 2045:

Victor Kane continues working on the van in Honduras. Kyle, Allison, William and Doc Freeman get their briefing on their new identities and are helped with disguises for them. The mega yacht, the Windfall, rendezvous with US Navy ships and takes a new large stealth drone (an upgraded Militech RPV-400) aboard.

***

Wednesday, July 12, 2045:

The Team flies into Honduras as Christian Missionaries. Victor Kane picks them up at the airport and drives to San Esteban. The runner scopes out this group, but finds nothing that makes him suspicious that they are anything more than just a group of missionaries on their way to their new posting.

On arrival in San Estaban the vehicle is searched thoroughly at the southernmost police checkpoint. The police are polite but thorough. At the mission they find there is no power. Victor and William go and examine the junction box. They tighten the fuses and the power is restored. They settle down for the evening.

***

Thursday, July 13, 2045:

The morning is flooded with medical cases as news of a doctor’s arrival in the town spreads. Doc Freeman, Zahra and Allison do their best to keep up with the crowd. Victor drives Kyle up to the de la Estaban hacienda to deliver the bribe to allow the mission to continue its work.

The complex is located on a flat patch of ground part way up a hill. There are two buildings surrounded by a low wall and garden. One is the main house and the other is a smaller guest house where the Team has been told that agent Horner is being kept. Behind these two buildings is another that is a fortified barracks that houses Ramon de la Estaban’s personal troops. Kyle gets a look at the guard set up and meets with the cartel leader. The man is pleasant but it is clear that there is an aura of menace about him. Ramon takes the bribe and hopes that there will be no ‘misunderstandings’ about the missionary’s job in the town. Kyle and Victor then return to the mission.

A few hours later Sergio de la Estaban, the chief enforcer of the cartel, comes to take a look at the operation. He takes one look at Allison and invites her to the hacienda tomorrow night. Well, it is less of an invitation and more of a command actually. It is very clear what he expects, wants and will take if necessary.

Kyle asks Allison to ‘take one for the Team’ and sleep with Sergio, which Kyle feels is not beyond the girl’s ability. Allison tells Kyle her secret. Except for being raped by her uncle when she was eleven, she has never actually had sex with anyone. She doesn’t really know what to do except in the most general way. Kyle offers to give her some ‘pointers’, but she declines. Fucking her best friend’s boyfriend is just too weird for her. Kyle assures her that Cat won’t mind as it would be mission critical, but that doesn’t wash with the teenager. Kyle thinks on the problem.

***

Friday, July 14, 2045:

Just after midnight, a peasant comes to the mission and asks the doctor to come visit his ‘sick wife’. This is a prearranged cover for the group to go and meet an airdrop that will give them the supplies and equipment to assault the hacienda. Victor, who is unaware of the real purpose of the trip, drives the Team out into the hills. They wait in an open field where finally a drop pallet is parachuted in. Soon Cat arrives on a spy tech covered spinner bike dressed in a spytech body suit.

As the Team loads the gear in the van, Kyle explains to Cat the situation with Allison and her impending ‘date’. Cat and Allison talk, then go off into the woods where Allison gets some ‘practical’ instruction in ‘seduction’ from her friend. Kyle decides that someone should look after them so sneaks out to watch and make sure they are safe. (Yeah, right!) Victor tags along to make sure Kyle is ‘safe’. They both get an eyeful and a woodie.

The Team returns to the mission and Cat jumps on her spinner to begin laying explosives at key communications junctions and sets out a series of repeater stations for the remotes they intend to use.

The morning brings a fresh influx of patients to the mission. Although the good will of the locals is not a mission priority, Doc Freeman with Zahra and Allison acting as nurses help as many of the locals as they can. The rest of the Team gets ready for the extraction tonight.

The hacienda is built on a flat spot half way up a tall hill at the north end of the town. There is a main house and a small guest cottage surrounded by a low three foot wall. To the rear of these structures is a fortified barracks where Ramon de la Esteban’s militia is based. Victor and Kyle drive Allison up to the compound about eight o’clock in the evening. They drop off Doc Freeman, who will position himself with a laser designator to target the barracks. William and Zahra get out and close on the complex in stealth suits. Victor and Kyle remain with the vehicle parked outside the compound. Nip flies the borrowed stealth drone from the Windfall posted off the coast and is ready to cover the retreat. Cat has planted explosives at all the communications junctions and towers in the area. She positions herself on a hill overlooking the police roadblock on the road north out of town with a high powered sniper rifle. The extraction is scheduled for eleven o’clock.

All goes well inside as Allison allays the suspicions of Ramon and his other son, Carlo. Sergio and Allison head off to the bedroom where the young woman rolls a 32 on her seduction (sometimes you do roll 10s when you need them)!

Meanwhile, just before eleven Zahra and William sneak up to the guest cottage where they believe agent Horner is being held. William jimmies the lock and Zahra enters. There she is confronted by a guard whom she kills with a silenced shot. The Jamaican solo rushes into the living room and there is Ramon de la Esteban and one of his cronies “interrogating” Robert Horner. Zahra kills both of them without alerting the guards outside. William checks the rest of the cottage.

Inside the moment of truth has come for Allison. Sergio is putty in her hands. She gets him relaxed and unawares, then twists his little neck. Calmly she gets dressed and walks out of the hacienda as if nothing has happened. At this point William, Zahra and Horner exit the cottage but are spotted. All hell breaks loose. William guns down the nearby guards as Zahra and the C.I.A. agent make for the truck. Allison runs but does not attract much fire as she is apparently no threat. Kyle lays down full auto fire into the guards with his 12.7mm assault rifle. Nip fires the Hellfire missile on the borrowed C.I.A. stealth drone and, guided by Doc Freeman, it destroys the barracks before the troops can get out. Victor guns the truck and loops to pick up Allison and the Team is on their way out. Across the valley, explosions cripple the local communications and radio systems.

As the Team’s truck approaches the northern police road block, they notice that the four policemen manning it are dead. Cat has been busy. Victor roars over the roads into the mountains towards the coast. Within fifteen minutes a police cruiser is on their tail. Kyle opens the roof hatch and levels his 12.7mm assault rifle at the vehicle. The cruiser explodes killing the police chief, Julian Burgos.

Red Line is van escape route; Blue line is Windfall’s launch route; Yellow line is van on remote control

The van leaves the mountains and approaches the town of Bonito Oriental. Nip warns them of a roadblock. As they approach the barricade, Nip fires a LATGM from the drone and blows a hole. Then she opens up with the drone’s 12.7mm chain gun. Victor smashes through and they continue on. Three miles down the road in the next town of Corocito, there is another roadblock. This time Nip reports that a tank is manning it! She can’t help with this as a Honduran fighter plane is in the area. The netrunner goes after the jet.

Victor quickly looks at his maps and plans a route around the new impediment. Good planning and better driving gets them past, but soon Honduran police pursuit vehicles and the “tank” (actually a Pan Europa armored car) are on their tail. By now the government airplane’s pilot is riding his chute down watching his jet doing flaming pinwheels to the ground. As the armored car begins firing on the fleeing Team’s van, Nip plants her last LATGM into the rear of the AFV and destroys it. Between the drone’s chain gun and Kyle’s 12.7 assault rifle, the other police vehicles are disabled or destroyed.

Five miles north of Corocito, they stop at a bridge crossing a river. There the launch from the Windfall is waiting to pick them up. The ship’s crew there loads some bodies into the van and an antenna is connected to the truck to allow Cat, who has flown back to the ship, to drive it from there. Another small drone with an electronics package is launched. The Team heads down river as Cat drives the van by remote control.

Not a minute too soon as two more Honduran air force jets arrive on scene. Nip slips behind the two and drops one with her last air to air missile. Nicholas is piloting the second drone which activates its electronics package to mimic the firing vehicle. Nip brings her stealth drone close to the ground and returns to the Windfall as the government fighter hunts down and kills the “enemy drone”. The jet then tracks down the fleeing van and blows it up.

(GM Note: Yes, in a situation room in Langley the C.I.A. is pulling out their hair over the collateral damage!)

The launch makes it out of Honduran territorial waters and meets the Windfall, which sets course for the Grand Cayman Islands. In the flaming wreckage of the van is found the bodies of a couple of rival cartel members. By the time the Honduran government figures out what really happened, they are already invested in their story of two rival cartels fighting it out. Carlo de la Esteban is furious at first, but then realizes that he is now head of the Olancho Cartel. His psycho brother is dead and his father’s crony, Burgos, is gone. With the government’s help, he can crush his cartel’s rival over this incident. The C.I.A.’s truth’ of this incident is more valuable to him than what actually happened!

***

Saturday, July 15, 2045:

In the morning the Windfall has a rendezvous with two US Navy vessels, a frigate and a support vessel. They deliver the C.I.A. agent and return the borrowed stealth drone. Victor is paid cash, gets a new passport and a large sum of money is deposited in the Team’s account. The naval vessels escort the Windfall to Grand Cayman Island.

The Team has a meeting and offers Victor a full time job with them on a provisional basis. The runner accepts.

***

Sunday, July 16, 2045:

At 8 am the Windfall drops anchor off the main ship terminal at the western end of the main Cayman Island. Doc Freeman has a brunch meeting with some hotel people and most of the Team will be going with him. He rents a Rolls Royce for his time on the island and Victor will be driving. As the runner goes to get the car he notices a small piece of palm frond caught in the hood. This strikes him as odd since a Rolls usually has a sealed engine compartment. The warranty lasts as long as the seal is unbroken (dealers have the ability to reseal it after repairs). When the Doc is informed of this he calls a cab instead and notifies the dealer whom he had rented the vehicle from.

On their return to the terminal after lunch, the place is crawling with police. A bomb has been discovered in the engine compartment. It was a shaped charge set to kill any and all riding in the vehicle. What bothers the authorities was that it was a radio detonator. The bomber had been watching the car. Fortunately for Victor, he was not the target. Kyle checks out the area and sends people to check a couple of locations that a bomber might watch from. No one is there, of course, but one place has evidence that someone had been standing there recently for a while. This was out of sight of any street cam.

The rental agency insists that the car had been sent over with the engine sealed up. Kyle asks to look at the parking lot security footage from when the vehicle had been sitting. Sure enough a repair truck with the rental company logo pulled up. A man got out and did some work under the hood before driving off. When confronted with this evidence, the rental company informs them that they don’t own a repair vehicle like the one in the security footage. The police confirm this. The authorities take down the make and model of the truck in question and start checking all those on the island.

On the Windfall Cat deploys additional security measures. Extra sonar sensors are seeded a hundred meters around the ship and combat nuscuba gear is brought out and readied. By evening the police inform the Team that the owner of a small garage on the island has been murdered and his truck is missing. There is evidence that a vehicle has been recently repainted in the main repair bay. All plans for the evening are then cancelled and the Team hunkers down on the yacht. Kyle calls his contacts at the C.I.A. and sends them a copy of the ‘repair man’s’ photo from the security cam for identification.

The evening is uneventful until a little after 10 pm. The new sonar net picks up a diver moving towards the ship. Kyle and William put on their dive gear and drop into the water with their spear guns. They surprise another armed diver and an underwater battle commences conducted with thermographic vision. After a brief exchange of mini-spears, the attacking diver starts to beat a swift retreat. William’s last shot catches the attacker in the head and kills him. They pull the dead body to the dive platform on the stern of the ship. William pulls a limpet mine from the dead diver’s gear bag. It is a radio controlled device, but there is no radio on the corpse. Ellers immediately tosses the mine as far as he can. About three seconds after it hits the water, the mine explodes harmlessly.

The police are informed and the corpse turned over. The authorities sweep the waterfront, but find nothing. The ship remains on high alert for the rest of the night.

***

Monday, July 17, 2045:

By 5 am, the C.I.A. has gotten back to Kyle. The ‘repairman’ who put the bomb in the Rolls Royce is identified as Javor Grol, brother of the late Petar Grol, a member of the now defunct ‘Baker’s Dozen’. The man is wanted by Interpol for several terrorist bombings and murder. He is usually politically motivated and doesn’t freelance. The Team realizes this is personal since they killed Petar Grol and the entire ‘Baker’s Dozen’ eight months ago in Venezuela. Kyle immediately notifies the Grand Cayman authorities who have now identified the dead nuscuba diver William killed last night. The diver was Nicola Cesic, brother of the late Dragoslav Cesic, the leader of the Serbian Hit Team, the “Baker’s Dozen”. Nicola was a heavily decorated captain in Serbian Special Forces on extended leave.

Since this is apparently not the work of Magda Berchtold, Cat contacts the Collective with this information. They inform the biogen that Magda denies any connection to this new group. The Hungarian heiress also reveals that Captain Istvan Vadas slipped, fell overboard and drowned two weeks ago while on night watch aboard his new command. Also, the former marine commander on the Horthy was murdered a week ago. The killing looked professional.

The Grand Cayman police run Javor and Nicola through facial recognition against people who have come to the island in the past ten days. Three other people arrived with the pair four days ago:

1 – Lea (Zrinski) Grol: The sister of Luca Subic Zrinski and wife of Javor Grol. She is wanted for computer crimes in the EU and is also political.
2 – Antun Zrinski, brother of Luca and Lea. He is a terrorist and hand to hand expert. He is usually political and not freelance.

3 – Malcolm Wright, brother of Gregory Wright. Gregory was killed on an island in the Orinoco Delta. He was suspected of joining the “Baker’s Dozen” just before his death. Malcolm is a former officer of the Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard and makes his living as a professional sailing captain. He is winner of many sail races and has no criminal record.

At William’s suggestion, the police check if any sailing yachts have been chartered recently. By 9 am they have an answer. Yes, in fact one was last night and the vessel set sail this morning. The police descend on the owner/captain’s home and find his dead body along with his wife’s. The sailing vessel was last seen heading north to Cuba. Unfortunately, the Grand Cayman Coast Guard has only one vessel ready (a second is a hundred miles south and the third is undergoing repairs). The remaining ship can’t leave the island unprotected. The authorities do declare the vessel stolen and a pirate craft.

Kyle tells Cat to put to sea immediately with the Windfall. The villains are not going to get away! The ship sails north at flank speed. The Team deploys remotes and catches the sailing yacht just outside Cuban territorial waters. The Serbs see the Windfall approaching and try to radio Cuban Navy authorities, but Nip jams their signal. The ‘pirates’ pull out some RPGs and prepare to resist. Kyle orders the Windfall’s 37mm ETE deck gun to blow them out of the water. Their ship uses this main gun and HATGMs to turn the sailing vessel to matchsticks.

Antun Zrinski and Malcolm Wright are killed but their bodies are recovered. Javor Grol and Lea Grol are wounded and taken alive. The Windfall returns them to the Grand Cayman Islands for trial. Javor Grol is extradited to the EU where he is tried and executed. Lea Grol is tried in the Grand Caymans and is sentenced to 25 years to life.

The Team members finally get to do their banking and many open some ‘secret’ accounts. Officially, Honduras continues to claim that they killed the “terrorists” who attacked San Estaban, but they begin to suspect the Team. Backchannel diplomatic pressure is brought to bear on both Disney and Jamaica. Zahra is arrested for an old murder that she is suspected of committing which begins a long legal battle for her. The government of Jamaica makes it clear to Disney that it would be best if the Team found some other place to live. This works out well for the Disney Corporation as they have trouble brewing at their flagship South American Theme Park, Fantasia, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Team is offered a job in Rio for more money than they can turn down.